MECANIQUES CELESTES (CELESTIAL CLOCKWORK)
Spain, 1995, 85 minutes, Colour.
Ariadna Gil, Arielle Dombasle, Evelyne Didi, Lluis Homar, Frederic Longbois, Olivier Granier.
Directed by Fina Torres.
Venezuelan director Fina Torres won the Camera D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1995. Her film is based on the opera Cinderella and uses many of its arias.
The film is a blend of the serious and the comic – all put together in a melting pot of free-wheeling comedy, music, farce.
Spanish star Ariadna Gil is Anna, a Venezuelan bride who flees her marriage to Paris to become an opera star. There she clashes with a popular singer, played by celebrated French actress Arielle Dombasle. However, she is under the protection of the Italian opera director and has a whole lot of eccentric friends to support her in her clash with the singer.
The film is in the Hispanic tradition – the eccentricity of the Latin American perspective with the old world of continental Europe.
1. An entertaining film? Hispanic sensibilities? Worldwide? Magic realism? The title, fate, Providence? The celestial clockwork for each character?
2. The Venezuelan settings, Paris? The contrasts? Dreams and reality?
3. The music, its range? The opera, Cinderella? Beauty, a modern adaptation of the story? With Latin American flavour and verve?
4. The visuals, the realism, the special effects, video, multimedia?
5. Anna, the wedding, the opening, her flight, her packing, the taxi, the inspiration of Maria Callas, the dress, the plane?
6. Anna in herself, audiences identifying with her? Paris, the taxi driver, the hundred dollars? The girls, her life, interaction? The music, her hopes? The teacher and his persuasion?
7. The bar, the boss, her meeting Armand? Help, the chat, the police? Anna and the sexual relationships? Help, the parents, singing, the marriage – the boyfriend and astrology?
8. Anna and her singing, the psychologist, weeping? Sharing? Love, the lesbian background? The clients and the television, money? The party and voodoo? The attitude towards America? The parody, the wedding?
9. Italo and his role, auditions, the television? With Celeste? The assistant, the auditions, the tape? The blonde, the loss? Hearing and happy? The prince?
10. The range of girls, the detail of their lives?
11. Celeste, ugly sister to Anna’s Cinderella? Her role in technology, the multimedia? Lies and seduction?
12. The police? Alcanie, her character?
13. Anna, the experience, the singing (and the actress dubbing)? Hopes, sadness, the party, Armand, Alcanie? The wedding?
14. Serious, comic, tongue-in-cheek?
